Antlers, Wolf Tracks & Buck Deer Pumpkin Art

It might only be June, but who isn’t already thinking about deer hunting this fall?

Everyone here at Deer & Deer Hunting, of course, never stops thinking about it. But it really is weird to think that we’re only a stone’s throw away from bowhunting season. That’s enough to get me excited to go out and shoot my bow tonight.

We are frantically working to get the new Deer Hunters Equipment Annual to the printer on Monday. You all are going to love this year’s magazine. It is jam-packed with 17 feature stories on everything from the latest in arrow technology to the 10 best deer rifles for your gun safe. It will be on newsstands July 10, but subscribers will start receiving it about a week before that.

So, you can probably tell we’ve hit our busy season. With that in mind, this week’s blog entry is going to be somewhat abbreviated. Be sure to check in with your comments on these items. I’d love to hear from you!

Thoughts on Antler Restrictions

I’ve been hanging on to this note for for too long. “Big Mike” sent it to me last December. He makes some interesting points on his background with antler restrictions.

He writes:

“I lived in Pulaski County Missouri in 2006 when the antler point restriction (APR) was introduced. Just to the south of me was Laclede County and just a few miles further south was Texas County. Neither one of these two counties had the APR. While hunting that year I personally witnessed two hunters shooting two different deer (small bucks which did not meet the minimum 4 points on one side) in Pulaski County, load them in a truck and travel just a few short miles south into Texas County and were home free.

“First of all the reason it does not work in Missouri is because the Department of Wildlife imposed a regulation without instituting a control measure such as check points. You cannot enforce a new regulation without some sort of control. At that time it was legal for a hunter to call or use the internet for check in purposes. Anybody want to go along with me and say Cletus and Bubba did not check those two deer.

“At that time in Missouri one hunter could shoot 5 bucks in one year legally, one with archery before rifle season, one during rifle season, one with archery after rifle season, one with a muzzle loader and if a hunter was lucky he could have been drawn on a special hunt and shoot the faith buck of the year not counting all the does he could have shot.

“I live in Kansas now and one hunter is allowed one antlered deer however he chooses to shoot it and there are a lot bucks in Kansas. It’s the hunters choose which one gets shot.

“Maybe Missouri should take a look at how many deer are really being harvested and maybe if they control it just a little bit better there numbers will also increase. Keep an eye on Cletus and Bubba.

The first one comes from Lindsey Meyer. She had this on her Twitter photo album. What a cool way to celebrate Halloween. I think I’m going to try this one with my girls this fall. Tracy planted our pumpkins a few weeks ago, and the vines are already overtaking my apple orchard. Our plan, as always, is to get four good pumpkins for carving. The rest of them, of course, go toward Tracy’s famous homemade pies. Now I’m hungry.

Halloween isn't always just about scary stuff. In fact, it falls at the perfect time to be out in the woods, sitting on your favorite deer stand. Lindsey Meyer knows this all too well.

The second image is from longtime Deer & Deer Hunting supporter Ryan Bauer. Ryan found this track on his hunting ground in Wisconsin. I’ve run this past a few of our Trapper & Predator Caller experts here in the office, including T&PC Managing Editor Jared Blohm, and they are almost certain it is from a wolf. Not always easy to tell with tracks in the mud, but it certainly isn’t a coyote (obviously), and very unlikely that it came from a domestic canine (based on follow up info Ryan provided).

Ryan Bauer was doing some habitat work on his deer hunting property in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, when he found a set of wolf tracks in a muddy area.

Cool photo, Ryan. I’m sure you are a bit more than intrigued by it, as well!